This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Electrically conductive structures are known to be provided on carriers such as circuit boards. But there is also a need for providing such structures on flex films, chassis, covers, casings, or middle decks of a piece of electronic equipment like a cellular phone. In some cases, the structure is to function as a radiator or antenna. When it is provided as such, it is important that the structure is well defined or otherwise the radiation properties may be worse than expected.
There are some ways in which electrically conductive structures are provided on carriers, like carriers made from silicon or plastic substrates. One way in which they may be applied is through the use of Laser Direct Structuring (LDS), where a plastic material that is doped with particles of electrically conductive material, like copper, is irradiated with laser light. This laser light then causes the metal to appear on the surface of the plastic material. This allows the provision of a well defined structure. But lasers are fairly expensive equipment.
Another example is through two shot molding. In this method, molding is performed using two polymers in two molding tools, where one polymer can be metalized and the other cannot. Such tools are expensive, and it is therefore undesirable to change the structure too often. A carrier produced this way is thick, which is disadvantageous if it is to be used in a small portable electronic communications device, such as a cellular phone, where size restrictions are often severe.